Monday, August 18, 2014

It has been far too long my little ghouls and ghosts but finally HalloweenOverkill has found itself a new home right here on weebly (click the giant banner below to be taken there!). After many false starts and breaks in the blog that was over at blogger I hope to finally bring you an entertaining stop on your quest for all things Halloween (and general horror of course) while you peruse the internet! Stop by a few times a week for your dose of Halloween goodness and please leave comments letting me know what you think of what you find here. Also if you explore around on the blog you will find buttons that link to my Halloween centric pinterest boards, my twitter, my email contact (especially important if you are a company who wants a product reviewed and/or included in a giveaway!), and my facebook page. I will also be sharing my favorite pages on the web, just check under the links page. In the future I hope to have giveaways, reviews, exclusive features such as Slasher Sunday, Creature Feature Friday, "Are You Afraid of the Blog", Tomes of Terror, live tweet events, top ten lists, and more!If you still follow HalloweenOverkill here on blogspot just be aware that eventually the blog will be completely moved over to weebly. I will continue to post any major posts here on blogger but again the blog's new home is on weebly (www.halloweenoverkill.weebly.com)!!!!!

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

You have to give the Mars company credit for blessing us with this Halloween commercial. You may have seen the Horseless Headsman commercial during your favorite television shows last year, but have you watched the special online edit of it? It is infinitely hilarious and ranks as my all-time favorite non-vintage Halloween tv spot! Check it out below.

When do you start enjoying your yearly Halloween reading? Some of you might say that you never stop, to which I say kudos! But if you are anything like me, even through the year round Halloween festivities, you have some classics that you wouldn't dare sully with the taint of any season other than autumn. These are the tomes that must be read only when the nights become darker, the leaves are blowing, and the cider is flowing! Does that Halloween reading list of yours contain anything by Paul Melniczek, cause if it doesn't then it would be an honor to introduce you to some of the most wonderful seasonal reading treats you will lay your eyes upon. And if you have already read any of Mr. Melniczek's Halloween books than you already know how important these are to seasonal reading. First on the list we have an anthology that is sure to turn your Halloween season into the darkest of seasons. A Haunted Halloween is one of those anthologies that takes Halloween and ties it into each of the tales told in the book, but unlike other anthologies that attempt this tie in, these tales actually bleed Halloween! Each and every tale in A Haunted Halloween has that Halloween flair that shines through with ease as only someone with as much love for the holiday as Melniczek can make happen! This book is easily a must purchase for those that wish to add it to their list of Halloween "must-reads". A Haunted Halloween contains 11 stories and 4 pieces of artwork. The book also has a very nice wrap around cover that when opened creates one larger piece of artwork!

A Haunted Halloween

Halloween. The name itself conjures up a witch's brew of images. Leering jack-o-lanterns sitting on porches, costumed children trick-or-treating across suburban neighborhoods, skeletal trees marking the passage of another season, and lonely fields of corn swaying gently in a chill, autumn breeze. But there is also a darker side to this magical night, one which can breathe life into things which were only possibility and sculpt them into dreadful reality. Every home has at least one closet which harbors a skeleton. There's a house in every town with a morbid past and haunted occupant. Families hide their own dark secrets, and inside each of us wages a struggle of good against evil, one in which the final outcome is never certain, or necessarily pretty. Within the folds of the dark season, all things emerge from the shadows to celebrate, claiming the holiday for their own sinister purpose, and for every treat there's a nasty trick waiting somewhere close by...

Click the Dark Regions Press button to order A Haunted Halloween!

The second story that Mr. Melniczek has cooked up for Halloween is "Mischief Night". I haven't finished this one yet but am currently in the process and will grade it once I have completed it. If you want a review of sorts though, all you need to do is turn to the back of the book where you will find a quote from Al Sarrantonio, author of the Orangefield Cycle - "Paul Melniczek writes about Halloween as if it's his birthday, Christmas and the Fourth of July all rolled up into one!" Do you really even my review after reading that? Here is the cover for "Mischief Night"

"Mischief Night"

When Rusty and his friends decide to visit the local neighborhood haunted house on Halloween night, they get much more than they bargained for, becoming embroiled in a hair-raising escapade which threatens to drag them into a living nightmare. There are more tricks than treats to be found in this old-fashioned Halloween romp, and the plot continues to grow deeper and darker as old man Berger and his minions of evil seek to bring Rusty and his companions under their sinister control, their purposes unknown. In the tradition of a Halloween campfire tale, come and join the thrills and chills in this story of an October adventure gone drastically wrong.

Click the Bad Moon Books button to order "Mischief Night"

So there you have part one of the Paul Melniczek Halloween book extravaganza! Check back each and every day leading up to the darkest night of the year for more Halloween goodness and check back soon for part 2 of this feature!

Friday, August 30, 2013

So often we debate whether or not movies, music, and video games are "art". The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines art as (n): decorative or illustrative elements in printed matter & (adj.): produced as an artistic effort or for decorative purposes. By these definitions a musical cd isn't "printed matter" in the way described above, nor is it for decorative purposes. These definitions imply art as a form "visual" matter in my opinion. This is the beauty of The Midnight Syndicates new release "Monsters of Legend", it is not only something to listen to, but the sounds within create mental "decorations" if you will. That's the thing about Monsters of Legend, if you just put the music on and lay back and close your eyes you will be instantly transported to a foggy cliffside castle, or a romp through an ancient european forest, or even perhaps a creepy old village where something is "not quite right". People might ask if the new CD is a collection of creepy music, or is more of a soundscape of sorts. My answer to them would be both. As you listen to Monsters of Legend a well defined classic horror movie will play out in your head (if you have even the slightest imagination for these sorts of things, and if not why are you reading this!) accompanied by the gorgeous soundtrack provided by the music that accompanies the sound effects on the CD. You will enter the village of Arcacia, visit the Inn of the Weeping Sparrow, experience the Witching Hour, take a Carriage Ride to the Dark Tower, and finally come face to face with A Terror Unleashed in a Cloistered Cemetery. Yes some of those are actual song titles from the CD and I challenge you to purchase the CD, listen to those tracks, and tell me that they don't perfectly describe the scenes that will play out in your head! A lot of the tracks on Monsters of Legend lean more toward the musical side but again there is a ton of stuff going on in the background if you listen close enough. This is easily one of my favorite Midnight Syndicate releases and I will definitely be finding a way to incorporate it into my yard haunt this year. What better way to kick off the Halloween Season than with a new release from the masters of Halloween Music, the Midnight Syndicate! Click here to purchase Monsters of Legend!

Track Listing:

1. Return to Arcacia

2. Into the Valley of Shadows

3. A Watchful Gathering

4. Inn of the Weeping Sparrow

5. Unwanted Visitor

6. Requiem

7. Witching Hour

8. Unexpected Cargo

9. Black Woods

10. Twilight

11. Carriage Ride (My Favorite Track!)

12. Stone Guardians

13. Ancient Portal

14. Dark Tower

15. Building the Monster

16. Lord of the Realm

17. Forgotten Alcoves

18. A Terror Unleashed

19. Cloistered Cemetary

20. It Lives!

21. Beyond the Veil of Time

Don't those track names just make you wish it was Halloween already! Once again click here to buy the CD and click the graphic to visit The Midnight Syndicate's website. If you haven't figured this out from the review above I am awarding Monsters of Legend 5 "Jolly Jack-O-Lanterns!"

Full Disclosure: A review copy of Monsters of Legend was provided by Midnight Syndicate Halloween Music

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

As you all know sometimes happens I've been inundated with end of the semester work and studying for finals. In fact I've been so wrapped up in school that I totally let slip by me the fact that Rob Zombie's new cd Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor (fucking mouthful!) is out now! Here is the cover art and track listing;

1. Teenage Nosferatu Pussy

2. Dead City Radio And The New Gods of Supertown

3. Revelation Revolution

4. Theme For The Rat Vendor

5. Ging Gang Gong De Do Gong De Laga Raga

6. Rock And Roll (In A Black Hole)

7. Behold, The Pretty Filthy Creatures!

8. White Trash Freaks

9. We're An American Band

10. Lucifer Rising

11. The Girl Who Loved The Monsters

12. Trade In Your Guns For A Coffin

The tracks I've listened to so far are amazing! Zombie's last non-remix cd Hellbilly Deluxe 2 was decent but it just felt like it was missing something. There were some great tracks such as Sick Bubblegum and Mars Needs Women but again it just felt like something was missing. Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor seems to have that old Hellbilly Deluxe 1 vibe to it but still feels fresh at the same time! In the mean time check out the video for Dead City and the New Gods of Supertown! (Edit: Scratch the music video idea, both youtube and Vevo will not let me embed it for some reason even though both offer an embed code, weird right?)

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Remember that Indie classic, Slender: The Eight Pages? If not you need to click here and download it immediately! The game has you wandering around a secluded wooded area for what seems to be no reason. You eventually find a page tacked to a tree trunk and the horror begins, for who is following you around these woods but the Slenderman! Yes the infamous Slenderman made famous by those SomethingAwful and Creepypasta posts was finally featured in his own videogame. The game itself was rather simple but confusing due to the nature of the fairly low scale graphics in which the entirety of the woods you wandered through looked the same throughout. This did add a factor of creepiness to the game as you constantly felt lost as you wandered the woods. Anyways the creator of the game agentParsec, has teamed up with Blue Isle Studios and Marble Hornets (of slenderman youtube video fame) to bring you a re-imagining of the original Slenderman: The Eight Pages now titled Slender: The Arrival! The game is available by clicking here and is a steal at 10 bucks! Don't listen to naysayers telling you that the Slenderman mythos is overplayed and not scary, do yourself a favor and try the game. All I'm going to say is that I'm in the second section of the game (about 45 mins in) and have literally HATED walking through my house past our sliding door in the kitchen because of the fear this game has instilled in me. I'm not just hyping the game, I have proclaimed several times that I am afraid of nothing on this planet other than flying yet this game has made me realize just how terrified of being alone in abandoned locations can be. Check the game out and come back here to HalloweenOverkill in a few days for the full review of the game.........If I can strike up the courage to finish the damn thing!